TOTD #48: Converting a JSF 1.2 application to JSF 2.0 - Facelets and Ajax

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Arun Gupta

TOTD #47: Getting Started with Mojarra 2.0 nightly on GlassFish v2 | Main | "Using Comet to Create a Two-Player Web Game" @ Ajax World

TOTD #48: Converting a JSF 1.2 application to JSF 2.0 - Facelets and Ajax

Posted by arungupta on October 15, 2008 at 5:40 AM PDT

TOTD #47 showed how to deploy a JSF 1.2 application (using Facelets and Ajax/JSF Extensions) on Mojarra 2.0-enabled GlassFish. In this blog we'll use new features added in JSF 2.0 to simplify our application:

Use integrated Facelets and resource re-location to simplify our facelets
Replace JSF Extensions Ajax API with new in-built JavaScript APIs to expose Ajax functionality.

Let's get started!

Re-create the app as defined in TOTD #47. This app is built using JSF 1.2 core components and Facelets. It uses JSF Extensions for adding Ajax capabilities. Lets change this app to use newer features of JSF 2.0.
Edit "faces-config.xml" and change the value of faces-config/@version from "1.2" to "2.0".
Remove the following fragment from "faces-config.xml":

    <application>
        <view-handler>com.sun.facelets.FaceletViewHandler</view-handler>
    </application>

This fragment is no longer required because Facelets is the default view technology in JSF 2.0. But it's important to remember that JSF 2.0 Facelets is disabled by default if "WEB-INF/faces-config.xml" is versioned at 1.2 or older.

Remove the following code fragment from "web.xml":

        <init-param>
          <param-name>javax.faces.LIFECYCLE_ID</param-name>
          <param-value>com.sun.faces.lifecycle.PARTIAL</param-value>
        </init-param>

This is only required if JSF Extensions APIs are used.

Edit "welcome.xhtml" and replace code with:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
      xmlns:ui="http://java.sun.com/jsf/facelets"
      xmlns:h="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html">
    <ui:composition>
        <h:head>
            <h1><h:outputText value="What city do you like ?" /></h1>
        </h:head>

        <h:body>
            <h:form prependId="false">
                <h:panelGrid columns="2">
                    <h:outputText value="CityName:"/>
                    <h:inputText value="#{cities.cityName}"
                                 title="CityName"
                                 id="cityName"
                                 required="true"
                                 onkeyup="javax.faces.Ajax.ajaxRequest(this, event, { execute: 'cityName', render: 'city_choices'});"/>
                    <h:outputText value="CountryName:"/>
                    <h:inputText value="#{cities.countryName}" title="CountryName" id="countryName" required="true"/>
                </h:panelGrid>

                <h:commandButton action="#{dbUtil.saveCity}" value="submit"/>
                <br/><br/>
                <h:outputText id="city_choices" value="#{dbUtil.cityChoices}"></h:outputText>

                <br/><br/>
                <h:message for="cityName" showSummary="true" showDetail="false" style="color: red"/><br/>
                <h:message for="countryName" showSummary="true" showDetail="false" style="color: red"/>
            </h:form>
        </h:body>
        <h:outputScript name="ajax.js" library="javax.faces" target="header"/>
    </ui:composition>

</html>

The differences are highlighted in bold and explained below:

"template.xhtml" is no longer required because standard tags are used to identify "head" and "body".
<h:head> and <h:body> are new tags defined in JSF 2.0. These tags define where the nested resources need to be rendered.
<h:outputScript> is a new tag defined in JSF 2.0 and allows an external JavaScript file to be referenced. In this case, it is referencing "ajax.js" script and is rendered in "head". The script file itself is bundled in "jsf-api.jar" in "META-INF/resources/javax.faces" directory. It adds Ajax functionality to the application.
"javax.faces.Ajax.ajaxRequest" function is defined in the JavaScript file "ajax.js". This particular function invocation ensures that "city_choices" is rendered when execute portion of the request lifecycle is executed for "cityName" field. The complete documentation is available in "ajax.js". Read more details about what happens in the background here.

Refactor "result.xhtml" such that the code looks like as shown below:

The changes are explained in the previous step, basically a clean Facelet using standard <h:head> and <h:body> tags and everything else remains as is.

And that's it, just hit "Undeploy and Deploy" in NetBeans IDE and your application should now get deployed on Mojarra 2.0-enabled GlassFish. To reiterate, the main things highlighted in this blog are:

Facelets are integrated in Mojarra 2.0.
New tags for resource re-location allow a simpler and cleaner facelet embedded in a JSF application.
JavaScript APIs provide a clean way to expose Ajax functionality in JSF app.

And all of these features are defined in the JSF 2.0 specification. So if you are using Mojarra then be assured that you are developing a standards compliant user interface.

Have you tried your JSF 1.2 app on Mojarra 2.0 ? Drop a comment on this blog if you have.
File JSF related bugs here using "2.0.0 EDR1" version and ask your questions on webtier@glassfish.dev.java.net.

Please leave suggestions on other TOTD (Tip Of The Day) that you'd like to see. An archive of all the tips is available here.

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Submitted by agoncal on Wed, 2008-10-15 07:38.

That's really good, thanks for this TOTD. As for another suggestion, what about having this same TOTD but calling a ManagedBean. I would like to see how declaring ManagedBeans and navigation have been simplified in JSF 2.0 (any @ManagedBean annotation ?)

Submitted by varan on Wed, 2008-10-15 10:44.

Like a broken record, I will put in my two cents that it is astounding at best that Sun, which used to be a leader in this area, is still pushing all this tagged based development framework comprising of heterogeneous technologies (XML, scripting etc.) when so may other environments wherein you can program almost all of a web application in pure Java are already available. I expect better from Sun.

Submitted by edburns on Wed, 2008-10-15 11:22.

V> Like a broken record, I will put in my two cents that it is V> astounding at best that Sun, which used to be a leader in this area, V> is still pushing all this tagged based development framework V> comprising of heterogeneous technologies (XML, scripting etc.) when V> so may other environments wherein you can program almost all of a web V> application in pure Java are already available. I expect better from V> Sun. Hello Varan, and thanks for your interest. Like the ancient Roman Empire, Java's strength is its diversity. Are you asserting that programming a web application in pure Java is the "best" way to do so? You're certainly welcome to make that assertion, but I know for a fact that many users would not agree. The best thing is you can have your Wicket and eat it too! Ed

Submitted by varan on Wed, 2008-10-15 11:31.

Ed Are you saying that we should use XML for Swing?

Submitted by rogerk on Wed, 2008-10-15 11:56.

Nahh... You can use annotations instead of xml if you like... ;-)

Submitted by edburns on Wed, 2008-10-15 11:58.

I'm saying render to XML what is XML's and render to Java what is Java's. Less cryptically, I think the record shows that describing a UI in markup is a great way to build a UI quickly for a large number of kinds of applications.

Submitted by varan on Wed, 2008-10-15 13:22.

Et tu, ED? Anyway, I think there is much to be said for frameworks where the developer does not have to go back and forth between various languages for programming. It makes both maintenance and development easier for everybody. Perhaps for large mythical teams where you have UI being developed in Botswana and the controller in Belige and the datamodel in Ghaziabad, it's more productive to have some people to specialize in XML and others in Java etc. but for entities with less than a zillion Rupees in capitalization it is quite cumbersome to use different languages for different parts of the applications.

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Arun Gupta

TOTD #48: Converting a JSF 1.2 application to JSF 2.0 - Facelets and Ajax